


And the Hero was Late

by Starr_Reborn



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: Close the book do not turn the page, F/F, Game mechanics are acknowledged, Gay, Guess who bought Fallout 4?, It's garbage, May answer to Blue tho, Maybe serious if you squint real hard, Nameless protagonist is nameless, Nanobots, Nora Who's Nora, Not Serious, Soul Survivor is an ass hole, Soul Survivor is extra thick, literal trash, more tags to come, robots need love too
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-09
Updated: 2018-03-20
Packaged: 2018-12-25 12:39:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 13,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12036063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starr_Reborn/pseuds/Starr_Reborn
Summary: Why do people listen to a stranger fresh from the freezer? They don't, it just doesn't happen that way. Charismatic or not, desperation only pushes someone to such lengths...In which Sole Survivor doesn't make promises she can't keep, and doesn't make friends with every sap on the street... Well, maybe some saps.





	1. Is it truly kidnap?

**Author's Note:**

> Blanked on a title. Briefly checked for mistakes.
> 
> SO I'VE STARTED STREAMING like constantly. Usually midnight streams or drunk streams but yeah, streeeams. And all that streaming made my brain like, "Bitch what if Fallout realistically took into account that you're a random Joe off the street? Bitch listen, bitch WRITE" and then I cried since brain was so cruel to me
> 
> SO here this is. Sloane is the actual name of my character i play with and i had to nod to the lady that started it all.

"Heard Sheffield disappeared."

It's not like she's actively eavesdropping. Because this isn't intentional. She didn't follow Fred and Sloane into Dugout Inn to listen in on their conversations. She'd gone for a drink, for a strange simultaneous mix of company and solace - and letting Nat stew over getting grounded again. She did so like to glare and just in general act a twat about it immediately afterward.

So this isn't eavesdropping. She's not listening in or writing it down or anything. She's just sitting at the bar closer to two drunk guards rambling about another person gone missing in their great green jewel.

"Left with some woman," Sloane snorts against the rim of his glass, choking on a mouthful of laughter and liquor. "I'm serious!"

"Oh? Serious as the time you heard Goodman interviewin' a super mutant on his talk show?"

"It happened!" Sloane considers Fred, aggravated and flush with indignation, and laughs.

"Sure it did," and before Fred can get a word in, Sloane commands with a tip of his head and a flourish of his hand(the one he's holding his glass with; a semi-vile concoction spills over his fingers from the sloppy gesture), "So tell me 'bout this woman!"

"Err, well I heard from Luis-"

"The new kid?"

"Yeah-"

"The short one? Skirt chaser?"

" _Yes_ , gonna let me finish?" Sloane sniffs. Tips his glass back. Sets the cup down on the counter. Scratches at the stubble on his chin.

"Myrna's been givin' him a rough time?"

"Yes! About  _this!_  May I continue!?" Sloane fails to bite back a grin at Fred's expense; Sloane had never made a secret of his fondness for screwing with his fellow guards. She always did like the nights he'd guard the Piper Suite.

"Sure puddin' cup," he tips his glass back again to hide the wicked tilt of his mouth, lest Fred truly lose patience with his antics.

"So, according to  _Luis_ ," he stresses this incredibly. "Lady waltzes up into the market. Didn't talk much. Went straight up to Sheffield though. Offered him a Nuka Cola and boom! They walked off into the wasteland together."

"Uh-huh. And what'd she look like?"

"Broad as a bull. Six feet tall. He didn't see her face but he wouldn't shut up about her ass." That caught Sloane off guard, grizzled old bastard coughing into his drink, spraying it over his face and across the bar. She couldn't help the disgusted curl of her lip as she wiped some spittle-splatter off her hand. These jeans weren't exactly nice but  _hey_  no one was looking anyway.

"So," he chokes around chest-rattling coughs and gut-busting guffaws. "That how she kidnap 'im? Lower his guard with cola, hypnotize him with her glorious ass?" He can't contain himself after that, falling onto the counter and pounding a fist against it while he positively convulsed with laughter. Fred continued to scowl, at least a little but he started to crack a grin of his own.

_It does sound utterly ridiculous, doesn't it?_

She wants to cut in, add her own two cents. Sounds like a synth, she'd tell them. And then they'd sober and glare harder, hotter, more cutting than Nat ever could. She takes a page from Sloane and drowns her opinion in a healthy swallow of Bobrov's Best as the man in question calms enough to listen to Fred go on,

"Apparently when Myrna tried to stop and ask the lady who she was, what she thought she was doing," he rolls his eyes and let's his head loll boneless on his neck, pantomiming yapping, Myrna's in particular. "Lady shoves her out the way and keeps walking. Doesn't even say a word. That's right about when Myrna rounded on Luis, started howling an' shrieking like a feral for flesh. She's convinced we're all synths now, letting synths stroll in whenever we please."

"That why she been lookin' at me funnier than usual on patrol?"

"Absolutely. She keeps one hand on her pistol at all times these days," Sloane snorts again but not in amusement, muttering,

"Don't we all." This receives a grunt in affirmation and they fall off into their own introspective silence. Piper sits back, chewing on her bottom lip, fingers tapping on the counter. Her foot starts tapping against the floor shortly and she finds herself rising from her seat.

"'m getting outta here, Vadim," she calls to the boisterous bartender chatting up Hawthorne at the far end of the bar, barking out laughter at, no doubt, another story of bravery and pure stupidity from his youth. He only glances over to see her slap down a few caps and offer a two-fingered salute then he's right back in it, babbling away as though he'd never stopped.

She'd kinda been avoiding - well, laying low at the very least; can't very well leave Nat to the wolves - Diamond City ever since the issue about McDonough a month or so back but had she really missed  _that_  much? Too agitated to head straight home, she takes a right out of the inn to walk a circuit of the city. Inevitably she finds herself reaching for the pack of cigarettes she keeps on an inside pocket of her coat, pulling one out and lighting up to consider the stars as smoke drifts into her eyes.

She hadn't really been thinking about Sheffield; sure she'd noticed he wasn't skulking around his usual corner of the market but she just hadn't thought about it. He was old and feeble, body ruined by chems and alcohol, the absolute last person she'd expect to be targeted by The Institute.

_Though to be entirely certain, they've yet to demonstrate any sort of traceable pattern..._

This was still too strange to swallow easy. The Institute weren't for daylight debacles, more prone to cloak-and-dagger methods of target acquisition. It just. It wasn't adding up. Perhaps it was time to bring an end to this self-imposed semi-exile. It was certainly time to get to the bottom of this little mystery.

She took one last drag and dropped her still burning cigarette, crushing it beneath one boot as she cut by Sheng's, taking the claustrophobic back alley the led to Diamond City's only trusted synth. If anyone could help her unravel this, Nicky could. All else failed, Nat would have been outside selling papers at the time, she could always barter her freedom for information.

She doesn't pause to knock on the door first, opting to rap her knuckles against the rusted hunk of metal as she shouldered it open, calling out as she entered,

"Hey Nick! Got a minute, I got a little somethin' that requires your expertise- Whoa!" It wasn't like Ellie and Nick weren't close, they lived and worked together after all, it's just. She'd never really witnessed Ellie embrace Nick like that. Arms thrown over his shoulders, face tucked into his tattered neck. Was she. Was she  _crying?_

What had she just walked in to? Nick's heated-coil eyes cut to her and she wouldn't swear it but. He seemed  _embarrassed_.

"P-Piper!" Ellie drew back slow - holy shit she  _was_  crying! - wiping at her face, sniffling as she turned with a tired, slightly weary but altogether bright smile.

"Good timing! Here to get the scoop on our latest Commonwealth hero?"  _What?_

Nicky turns towards her, asking, "Yeah,  _hero_. How'd you know I was in there?" Piper's ready to counter with a good, eloquent,  _The FUCK are you talking about_ , but. There's a cough, someone clearing their throat so close to her she can't help the flinch and quiet gasp that leaves her. Her head whips around and-

"Hero's a strong word," The gas mask screams raider, and Diamond City security is pretty useless but even she thinks they'd have more sense than to let one in the front door. Probably. God she hopes so. "I was just passing through." And Her shoulders - the voice is raspy and rough but definitely female - shift up and drop back down in a shrug. "No big deal."

"Just passing through? Was a long way down to be  _just passing through_..." It's not exactly an accusation. Shrugging isn't exactly an answer, either, but it's the only one he gets. He sighs, moving behind his desk, practically falling into the worn seat he favors. The woman at her side shifts, head cocking towards Piper - the door she's standing in front of, really - then ticking back to face an almost-under-control Ellie and Nick's ever piercing gaze.

"Mind if I ask you a few questions?" Gasmask doesn't answer at first. Piper isn't blind though; that woman's whole body tenses up. Ready to fight. Ready to run. So she thinks the way Gasmask crosses her arms and cocks a hip must be terribly uncomfortably forced casualness.

"Mind if I ask why?"

"You could have left me in there, but you didn't. You could have killed Skinny and his girl, but you talked her into going home and him into mercy. You  _escorted_  me home.  _Me!_ "

Gasmask had been shifting closer the whole time Nick spoke. Like she itched to be outside, away from them. Away from the questions and-

_I don't blame her. Not at all._

And still Gasmask shrugged.

"Think nothing of it. Have a nice life," she  _was_  quick, slipping by Piper smooth and near silent. Two ships in the night. But, and this would prove to be Gasmask's undoing, Piper was an unbelievable, indomitable creature when it came to those things and people that had caught her attention.

How unfortunate Gasmask was to be the very object of her curiosity.

* * *

She'd never liked being stared at.

She'd confided in Nate, within those first few golden weeks after she'd given birth to Shawn, she was certain he'd absolutely come to hate her as he grew. If he was anything like her, it'd take very little time for him to grow incredibly uncomfortable with her adoring gazes. Nate had laughed and pressed a kiss to her mouth and promised to help shoulder that burden. He couldn't stop staring either. Shawn was the most beautiful thing in the world...

But Shawn was gone now. And so was Nate. This was the world, a slice of what was left and.

And now she couldn't be called paranoid for that dislike. Now there was a pretty good chance these stares were dressing her down for valuables, weaknesses. Now when her spine was infused with steel and she glared from behind a ridiculous, stinking mask - she reminds herself to stop pilfering the pockets of the passed; the stench of the previous owner is beginning to prove itself mighty powerful - people turned away.

And perhaps that was strangest of all. She was a woman. God above, the Vault-Tec lackey that'd come to her on the Morning Of had hemmed and hawed and asked for her husband the whole time - but now? Now the guards kept their hands on their guns and their heads turned her way. Now people scurried to get out of her immediate path. Now-

"Hey!" That voice sounded vaguely familiar. And something about it tickled at her sense of danger. That instinct that Vault-Tec had honed - with a generous helping of nanobots - into a veritable weapon all its own. Her fingertips brush the pistol strapped to one hip, but it's the tensing and shifting of the nearest guard that calms the nervous twitch of those fingertips.

She takes the closest turn that won't spit her out into the main market, fast-walking down the dirt path to a set of stairs leading up into the darkness of a Diamond City night. She's quick to start up, taking them two at a time except -

" _Hey!_ "

Except taking them two at a time doesn't make her pursuer slow down in the least. And it leads her to a dead end in the form of a locked house anyway. She's quick to withdraw the sword she keeps strapped across her back, turning on her heel to level it, and a dark glare probably pretty hard to see beyond the mask, upon her-

"You?" Her white-knuckled grip on the hilt doesn't loosen but the blade falls an inch as she relaxes. Not completely, oh no, this sword will stay pointed right at Ms. Nosy the whole damn time. But not necessarily at her throat. "What do you want?"

Her hands are raised, placating. Two more inches of safety for the girl in red.

"I just wanna talk." It gets hot under this armor. Sweat beading her brow, seeping into the worn clothing, plastering it especially against her lower back. She always feels sticky with sweat these days. Sweat and blood. She decides its something she won't be dealing with right now. The blade lowers completely but her grip tightens. Ready for a fight at the shortest notice.

"So talk." She can't be certain but she'd swear the girl grits and grinds her teeth on some irritation. Must be at her expense.

Ah well.

"You saved Nick." It's not a question. They both know the score here. "And Skinny. And Darla. Why?" She heavily considers continued silence. Nick hadn't pressed but...

"Stupid," she grunts, leaning back against the door. The girl - Nick had said, err, Piper? - cocks a brow at her. "I should have left Nick, snapped Darla's neck and shaved off chunks of Malone until he truly was skinny." The brow dips, both of them furrow and she's met with a scowl.

"But you didn't."

"No, I didn't. For various reasons beyond your comprehension," There's a very small voice in the very back of her mind. That sunny little part of her soul that refuses to adapt to a wasteland lifestyle. Refuses to harden, refuses to shrivel up and die. A part desperate to search for a baby that it is certain is still out there. A part that can't handle killing and turns ill at the sight of spilt blood.

This part remarks, and very quietly, that Piper looks rather adorable when she's upset like she is in this moment.

This part is quickly strangled into silence.

"You're a real piece of work, lady." Is what Piper mutters, low and through her teeth. What she means is, of course,  _Kindly go fuck yourself you asshole._

"Thanks," and it comes out flat but one corner of her mouth curls up despite herself. That tiny sun spot in her soul chokes out another comment. It's throttled into silence again. She scoffs, clear indication this conversation is over, rolling her shoulders back and pushing off the door to brush past Piper but-

"One last question-"

"If you're fond of that hand, I'd suggest removing it from my person," The girl's got balls, that's for certain. Wary, but unafraid Piper stares right up into her eyes. And it's dark and she's wearing the mask but.

"Did you take Sheffield?" But that had been the last thing she'd expected.

"No," she jerks away from the  _continued_  touch, barreling onwards towards her ultimate destination - right the fuck away from here. And. Well she almost can't help it. She doesn't have to, she shouldn't, she really can't but - her steps slow, she half-turns and offers a grin that won't ever be seen, "He followed me willingly."


	2. Extortion was the answer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which a resident writer of the Wright variety finds a way to get what she wants.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I like puns too much. And word play. And Piper's face. Seriously she my girl, but sometimes she get real judgy like Piper shhh jus let me lik ur face.
> 
>  
> 
> Anywhoozle, didn't i tell you guys this was garbage? I swear i better not see any fuckin' hits on this y'all better find something worth your while before you think i am cuz it may be cute BUT IT'S WRONG

She's not six feet tall. Just a few inches shy. Nicky is six feet with a couple extra inches cushion and this lady is not nearly up to snuff. But if there's one thing right about the description - she really is built big. Broad shoulders, thick thighs - Hell when she'd grabbed hold of one arm to stop her it'd felt like tugging on a brick wall. She muses, as she whips out her pistol and levels it at the woman, that The Institute sure is getting creative with these newer models.

The woman had turned her back after the last comment, content to stroll away with the last word, smug bitch. And sure Piper didn't know her but she did know how a smug individual carried themselves. It's in the set of their shoulders, tilt of their head, their strut. Lady's got it all and then some. But it all drops as soon as she hears the gun cocking.

"Yeah, did ya see this coming, Synth?" The woman rolls her head around on her neck, cracking and popping it obscenely loud. Rolling her shoulders a few times. But otherwise making no moves to turn Piper's way. Not reaching for any of the guns strapped to her person. Maybe the sword she's holding so tight her hand is trembling is in the way. Maybe it'd take too much time, too many motions to drop, duck and roll out of dodge enough to unleash bullet Hell upon Piper.

"Clearly," And maybe, just maybe, Piper thinks that in any other situation her and the mysterious stranger could get along. It's almost too bad, really. She'll just have to find a way and the strength to get over it. "It's funny..." she mused, finally slowly spinning on the step to stare up at Piper, at the pistol aimed right for her head.

And Piper's not going to respond. She's just not, ok? Her finger is on the trigger, she's going to pull  **BANG**  and all that biz...

"What's funny?" God damn it. She is weak, her curiosity makes her weak. There's an old saying about curiosity radiating the cat and she might as well have stepped in the glowing sea.

"Your  _Nicky_ ," she must sneer this. Piper imagines so. As much as no face can be imagined to sneer. "Happens to be a synth. But I'm the one at gunpoint."

"You took Sheffield."

"He followed me!"

"Where!? Where did you take him-"

"YOU!" it comes out half-roar, so sudden Piper starts and in that blink Lady Synth impossibly eats up the space between them, ripping Piper's gun away and stopping only when mere breaths separate them. She makes no moves to attack, though her body is shaking and tense with fury. "You don't get to question me,  _girl_."

"I'm not-"

"Yes! You! ARE! You're a scared little girl, too hurt to trust anyone, to leave well enough and a complete STRANGER  _alone_! Who died in front of you, sweetheart? How many lives you take that didn't bring 'em back, huh? HUH?! I helped that old man, like I helped your  _nosy fucking robot!_ "

"HEY!" Never in her life had Piper imagined she'd be so happy to hear the voice of Danny Sullivan. "What's going on here? Piper?" And this is her moment. Maybe-Not-So-Lady-Synth should have thought to the time of night before she started yelling. She's gone ridged, Piper thinks she may have stopped breathing. She doesn't even twitch as Piper slides out from in front of her and moves closer to her savior.

Except. Halfway there she stalls. Damn her, but-

"Ah sorry 'bout that Danny!" She laughs and his gun lowers, even as he tries to peer around her to eye her companion. And, panicking he might see the sword ( _This is a bad idea and I feel bad_ ), she blurts out, "Just a spat, ya know? Thought I was sneaking around with Nicky!"

"Uh-huh," he nods real slow. "This guy givin' you trouble?" The body at her back finally shifts, she feels more than hears the sword sheathing. And then the sound of something unlatching-

"I could ask the same thing of you, bub," an arm slings itself over her shoulder, pulling her into the side of her, ah, whatever-the-Hell-she-was. Piper tries not to freeze up, plays at playful, forcing out a light laugh and leaning into the touch instead of ripping herself away.

"Thought you an' John...?" Her face colors. She glares at him.

"That's none of your business, is it?" He sniffs, quietly offended, drawing his shoulders back and puffing up. He's going to say something and it's going to be rude and she's going to tear him a new one she SWEARS she's going to do it she-

"Sorry for the noise disturbance, err, David, was it?" This is the worst time and place to want to grin. She bites it back with the reminder she's probably maybe hugging a murderous kidnapping Synth.

"Danny," he grunts, scowling something fierce. "And you?"

"It's like the lady said," she turned a smile down to Piper, glancing up at Danny all sharp eyes and bared teeth. "That's none of your business. So have a nice night, Derrick." Jesus this lady was pushy. Her steel bar of an arm started discreetly shoving and, considering it was like trying to fight against a wall, Piper allowed it to lead her away from... Whoever's house that was, couldn't really recall at the moment.

"You owe me." Piper muttered, glancing at the de-masked woman still trapping her against her side. Which was definitely, totally comfortable, what with the metal pieces of armor bruising into her skin thanks to the tight grip an' all.

"Yeah I fucking know," the woman hissed back, eyes cutting her to the bone. And so maybe she didn't seem so similar to synths except those eyes so blue it was like staring down the barrel of an Institute rifle. "I mean, that was your fault anyway but-"

"You'll answer my questions?" She wasn't pushing and forcing now, she'd slowed her pace taking the back way to the waters edge of Sheng Kowalski's. There her arm dropped and she finally moved out of Piper's immediate space, dropping down to sit by the water. She sighs, palming her face and rubbing her hand across it. She seemed smaller like this. Weary and feeble and a hundred years old.

"I didn't know Nick was down there, I was looking for something," she begins, hand falling away and leaning back On her other hand. Grimacing. "Something that I didn't find by the way."

"What about Darla and Skinny Malone? Where's Sheffield?"

"Darla and Skinny didn't seem worth the bullets or bruises. Sheffield is in Sanctuary, it's a settlement about a day and a half northwest from here." She cocks her head towards Piper, mouth a hard razor line. "Anything else?"

"How about a name?"

"How about a no?" A disgruntled noise forms without her permission and for some reason it makes the woman's mouth quirk in a brief smile. "Look, girl, I answered all your questions, ya gonna rat me out as a synth or can I go?"

"Hmm," she hums, thinking, feeling closer to content but still not nearly satisfied. "I don't believe you." She really only looks big when her body is filled with fury, as it turns out. Eyes turning to angry, gleaming slits, fingers curling into fists as she sits up straight.

"Excuse-"

"Take me with you."

"I," her eyes go wide, her mouth drops open. It's a bad time to be noticing the scars across that mouth leading up from the middle of her chin to just under her left eye. "What?"

"Take me with you," she tries to say it slowly, carefully enunciate each word. "Show me Sanctuary."

"Girl-"

"I'm a grown-ass woman,  _lady_. And I've got a name." And so Piper is regarded by those eyes, absent of fury or condescension. She's regarded and maybe it's a trick of the low light but she'd swear there's respect.

"Piper," she says, slow. Almost uncertain. Piper nods. "I'm not going straight back there. I've got business in other parts of the Commonwealth."

"But you'll go back there soon?" Another long moment only filled with ambient night noise.

"Something like that," she acquiesced, dipping her head in a few slow nods. "Piper," she hesitates, "This is a bad idea."

"You think I don't know that? Think I haven't been telling myself that for the last ten minutes?"

"Then why?"

"I trust you about as much as you trust me. Until I know that you're not a threat to the greater good - ya know, all us people inhabiting the Commonwealth - you're stuck with me, Blue."

* * *

Who. The. Fuck.

"You must think you're something real big and important-"

"Wanna test how loud I can yell Danny's name?"

"Really?  _Really?_  Blackmailing me?"

"I'm a journalist," she shrugs. Because obviously that just explains EVERYTHING right?! Perhaps noticing the way her face twists, Piper continues, "We do what needs to be done." She can't help eying the water, wondering how irradiated it is. If it'd melt her brain before she could drown or...

"So I don't have a choice in this," Her eyes cut to Piper, who seems really quite content to stare a hole into her cheek. And she fights the urge to yank the gas mask back into place, hide the face that's become hers. First kind act in this new world had allowed a Deathclaw the chance to carve her up pretty. A thick web of scars painted vivid images of the wasteland struggle into her legs, across her back. Her face got off lucky.

"Pretty much!" she much preferred watching Piper scowl and puff up in irritation. This smiling fiend wasn't nearly as attractive. She sighs and rubs a hand down her face again, pinching the bridge of her nose where a ball of pressure contents itself with trying to make her head explode.

"Any place a gal can buy a drink around here?"

"Nowhere you want to go, trust me-"

"Gonna stop ya right there, girl. Trust ain't a word you should be allowed to use." Ahh, and sweet scowling. It's almost enough to twitch her mouth into a perfectly pleased smile. But she resists the urge with a well placed reminder that this little waif of a woman had just strong-armed her into being an escort. "Alright then." She rises from the ground, head swiveling about to gain her bearings.

"Alright then?"

"Let's go," she says, turning to Piper and pulling the gas mask she'd left hanging from her neck back onto her face, adjusting the straps until she was certain it was perfectly secure. "To Sanctuary."

"Right now-"

"I'm not babysitting you around the wasteland, honey. You want to see Sanctuary so bad, well that's fine. I'll get you there alive, then we part ways. Here," she's holding out a gun. Piper's gun, the one she'd taken. "I didn't feel too comfortable arming you, still don't but if you can't keep up I won't be blamed for any loss of life or limb."

"Gee, how kind," She leaves it to Piper to catch up with her, pumping her legs hard just to make it that much more difficult on the girl. And so she's a little satisfied by the shout and subsequent jogging steps that follow after her, "Hey! Slow down, Blue!"

"Keep up,  _Girl_ ," she's more than just a little satisfied by the disgruntled scoff.

"Listen just- slow down!  _Please!_  I got a little girl at home an-" She stops so abruptly Piper slams into her back. Arrested by the cacophony in her head. That little sun spot is shrieking and demanding and so fucking  _unbearable_.

"Leaving your child for something so trivial?" And it drips with poison.

"She's my sister. She deserves to know I'll be gone." She can't decide if that's better or not.

"Go on," she chokes this out, half-bark half-grunt. She has to force her body to relax, leaning against the nearest wall with an air of casual that's unnatural. She crosses her arms for good measure. "I'll be here."

"And how can I trust-"

"You can't." Piper stares at her, uncertain. She taps into that quieting sun, allowing it to melt the ice in her tone, turn it into a soft murmur, "Go kiss your family goodbye. I'll be here." More hesitation. More uncertainty. But.

Piper nods and scurries away. And she leans her head back until it hits rusted metal. And she curses herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That quip about John calls to this time i was streaming and go to pick up Piper-wife for an adventure and he was walking down from her bedroom and I felt about twelve types of ways.
> 
> Like damn Pipes i abandon you for Curie's über appealing French accent and this is how you repay me?!
> 
>  
> 
> If you made it this far, why? Go home, but also thanks for reading I love you you're beautiful.


	3. Detouring - It's for dumbasses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which our Sole Survivor realizes she made mistakes. Namely, picking up a pretty nosy reporter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so impatient to get to the meat of this story. I hope it's as juicy for everyone else as it is for me. This isn't juicy, but i think it's closer to lighthearted than the first two.
> 
>  
> 
> Also Blitz is literally my favorite SPECIAL perk. I've always imagined my allies watching me teleport in awe and fear.

Piper's seen some insane things that radiation has done. Well, maybe not insane. She's heard ghouls - some real old timers - talk about times before The War. Greenery as far as the eye can see, one-headed animals, kindness around every corner and no radiation. Not anywhere.

She thinks it sounds like bull shit, but then she remembers those old timers used to look a lot prettier and wonders if all this is insane to them. She wonders if she should find it insane. She wonders if what she witnesses now is due to radiation - no matter the  _Why_  behind it, it is most certainly insane.

Blue - she's thoroughly embarrassed by such an unimaginative nickname, but she had little information to work on and those peepers were intensely blue - could, ah, teleport? It wasn't incredibly large distances, but.  _Teleporting!?_

Raiders had tried to swoop down on them a few blocks outside of Diamond City. Holing up in the gutted, war torn remains of what had once been a modest office building, half of their number - a meager dozen that could prove troublesome to any lone traveler - had descended with bad intent but then Blue had struck. She'd had only enough time to pull out her weapon and the first one went down, severed head not even hitting the pavement before his closest companion took a blade to the heart.

The rest of what Piper would like to call a battle( _massacre is a much closer fit though_ ) went much the same. She'd blink, Blue was already on another raider. She tore through them like a Deathclaw. But silent. No feasting no roaring. She didn't gloat, didn't grunt; Piper wondered if she was even blinking behind that mask. The others positioned throughout the building took longer.

Shouts and gunfire filled the night in brief bursts but, within the span of a minute, it quieted. In the time it takes her to run to the blasted open, gaping maw that marks the pseudo entrance to the three story compound, Blue is calmly walking down stairs that have, perhaps more impossibly than teleportation, withstood the passage of time and Nuclear Terror.

"It's clear," is the eloquent grunt she's given in face of the disturbed expression she levels upon her masked companion. "Let's keep moving." And what's with all this grunting- is she a caveman or stupid or in-fucking-sane? Maybe Piper's insane. Blue just turns and carries on like she didn't just decimate a gaggle of raiders in under  _two minutes_. By TELEPORTING.

"Sooo," she can't see Blue's face now but there's a hitch in her steps that makes Piper think she's already hit a nerve. The kind of nerve that involves a bunch of scowling and generally rude reactions from her incredibly strange Maybe-Not-A-Synth-But-Definitely-Not-human escort. Good thing she'd told Nat. At last she knew someone would come looking for her after she walked herself right into an Institute trap...

_Shit. Should have never told Nat._

"So?" It's less question, more barking demand. She reminds herself to start up a healthy dialogue about the proper ways in which to address people in conversational tones. Clearly it's etiquette Blue happens to be sorely lacking. And this snapping and snarling like an animal should stop. It's getting old fast. It was old the second it started.

"We gonna talk about what just happened?"

"No."

"Gee, you're pleasant," At least her laugh isn't harsh animal noise.

"Funny, was just thinking the same thing!" Welp.

"You just teleported. Isn't the point of you agreeing-"

"I was blackmailed."

"-to take me to Sanctuary all for proving you  _aren't_  a synth?!" She doesn't even get a grunt this time. Which she thinks might be better than the alternative. Unless Blue was rolling her eyes. Highly possible. No way of knowing. Damn that mask. "Ya know, there were guards back in Diamond City, thought a girlfriend leaving the cap off of toothpaste indicative of her bein' a synth. I try not to be so harsh. Ya know what's something a synth might actually do? TELEPORT. See where I'm coming from here?"

More silence. More possible eye rolling. Dear God she could be making any amount of faces under there. Why, she could-

A sigh. Long. Suffering. Very overly dramatic.

"It's not teleporting," she grumbles. Shoulders hunching up. "It's. I call it Blitz."

"Ok," Piper draws this out, processing. Still confused. "So what exactly  _are_  you doing, when you do this, uh, Blitz?"

"Running. Extremely fast. It's how I disarmed you, back in the city." Alright, so there's that.

"But-"

"Ever heard of Vault-Tec?"

"'Course. Pre-war company, made Vault 81. You can find the  _best_  cigarettes down there. Preserved and pristine. Don't make 'em like they used to." That pulls another laugh out of Blue, but quieter. The kind of laugh she really hadn't meant to let out. The kind that surprised her - she stops walking and turns to Piper and something about the way she holds herself leads her to believe that Blue's just smiling. Which probably looks pretty nice, even despite the scars.

"So you've been in a Vault?"

"Nah, but anytime Hawthorne is headed their way I guilt him into buying me a couple packs," and like that her almost-friendly demeanor drops. Her body is hard lines and tense muscle and a pretty, scarred face that must be glaring from behind that mask. Fumbling for another of that brief splash of fresh air in this noxious confrontation, she ventures, "So I take it you've been in one?"

"A few." Flat and cold. If Piper was any better at pissing people off, she could make a business out of it... Oh. Oh wait.

"Err, that where you pick up the Pip-Boy?"

"What do you think?" And she's off, striding away into the night darkened streets like she owns them, like there aren't feral ghouls and Super mutants and a thousand other things waiting to try and kill her. Piper thinks maybe she just doesn't care. If she can Blitz her way through it all, why would she?

Honestly she should just start thinking things through. Things like - Why the Hell hadn't she told Nick instead!

* * *

It did take the girl an amount of time to realize they weren't going exactly Northwest. Much more West than North, truly. She'd give the girl credit where credit was due - her only comment hours after the last oh-so pleasant conversion was,

"You got a map on that Pip-Boy?" And Piper had been so sweetly silent for such a long time, she took pity on the probably exhausted little slip of female, telling her in a voice rough from disuse,

"We're going to Vault 81." They were very nearly there just-

"Ok," and she drew out the sound on that. Perhaps she should have kept her idiot mouth shut. "Why exactly? Aren't you sick of me? Wasn't leaving Diamond City in the middle of the night-"

"You're exhausted, I've got business there, and it isn't out of our way. Now shut up!" she's going to leave it at that, she's just-

"Hey listen jerk, I-" There's something real nice about using Blitz in a way that doesn't actively force the soul from the body. Or maybe it's just nice to slap a hand over Piper's mouth so she can concentrate on-  _There it is!_  "H-hey what the Hell! Where are you going?!" But she doesn't answer, Blitz-ing around until she finds the source of the soft animal noise she'd been keeping an eye out for. The animal, not the noise.

Vault-Tec did some pretty crazy things with nanobots but allowing her to see sound wasn't quite there.

"You," she snarls at the ash gray cat sitting on the edge of a dumpster, crying and too far from home to know how to get back. "You are one dumbass of a cat."

Ashes tries to be sweet upon sighting her, trotting over and jumping down to purr obscenely loud - Harley would have been an acceptable name, though she knows it would have been cleverness wasted - and rub its body all over her legs. She's not exactly gentle the way she grabs it by the scruff and lifts it up to face height but Ashes only purrs louder. So she sighs and settles it against her chest, securing it with one arm under the tail.

"Blue what the fuck-" there must be something truly unbelievable about finding her with a cat in her arms. She doesn't quite like the look leveled her way. It's not so bad initially, but once Piper gets over her shock a wicked smile and bright eyes make her shift uncomfortably. "Business huh?" Her own lips curl in a silent snarl - God she misses Dogmeat, he'd been such a good, silent, non-judging companion - but she resists the urge to make an ass of herself.

Just barely.

She huffs, turning back toward Vault 81 and steadfastly ignoring every comment now being thrown her way through the brisk hard walk.

"Blue, the Big Bad Synth, Finder of Felines."

It's not so bad it's not so bad it's not so bad. She's gonna keep a cool head about this, she is its happening in fact it happened haha wow so cool so very cool.

"The Provider of Purrs."

This is fine she's not mad she's holding a small furry easily injured creature and she's not mad.

"The Curator of Cats."

She is weak and her groan is proof,

"Please, stop."

"Wow. That might have been the nicest thing you've said so far. Color me surprised." Detouring was a bad idea and she feels bad.

"Oh look the Vault, better hurry Ashes home!" She doesn't run from her problems and she isn't running now. This is all purely strategic. Piper's laughter echoes after her until she passes the point where rock becomes metal and then, oh blessed, then she's awed into silence. And she remembers the first time she saw a Vault. Less than a month after starting at Vault-Tec. She recalls that breathless excitement of something greater than herself, something grand and powerful.

She remembers the jagged knife of betrayal that lanced through her very soul finding out that each Vault hid something darker, malevolent and just. She remembers waking in her own Vault and living with that knowledge. She'd known, and she'd still signed the paper. She'd known and she'd walked her whole family into it.

Deal with the devil. Save her soul at the cost of her heart...

"It's amazing, isn't it?" The words sound distant but she knows they come from her own mouth.

"Yeah," Piper breathes.

"If you're lucky you might be able to convince Austin to give you the tour," she chuckles and she's back in the here and now, not two months ago in a tomb. Piper looks at her funny and she smiles back...

Then remembers not only who she's smiling at, but that she's wearing a mask. So she sniffs and jerks her head towards the open vault, taking the steps quick as she can. The first resident that sees her laughs,

"I see you've found Ashes!" She grumbles in response and doesn't look but damn can she certainly feel the incredulous stare Piper is shooting her. The elevator doors don't even close before Piper is upon her so quickly it's almost Blitz-worthy.

"What's this about, Blue?" And while she tries to find a way to express just how much that isn't Piper's God damn business, Ashes decides that's the best time to wriggle out of her arms, half a second before the doors open.

"I swear if that cat isn't running to her owner I'll skin it alive..." But the threat can't be followed through until later. Now she's got more important things to worry about - a shower for one and shoving Piper into a bed to give her a few hours peace a close second.

"Uh-huh, sure ya will. Positively smitten with kittens as you are," Piper wants to get strangled. That's got to be it. She's self-destructive, seeking death and all that. She just. "And don't even think you'll be getting out of my questions!" Holy irradiated Christ.

"Listen, just," she stops and sighs and slams a fist into the button that opens the door to her room. She'd discreetly checked out the rest of the residential suites and, honestly, the Overseer had been entirely too generous. The bed was large she had plenty of room - too much room for her. "There's a bed. Take it. Sleep on your questions. I need a shower before I start growing brain fungus."

"This place... Is it yours?" What part of,  _Sleep on your questions_ , had she not understood? She only answers once she manages to yank her gas mask off, using her arm to mop sweat from her brow.

"It was given to me by the Overseer," she pulls off one of the metal pauldrons she'd lined with supple Brahmin leather and sewn in pockets herself. The other follows. "Helped out with an infestation and it ingratiated the Vault Dwellers to me, hence the greetings." She stoops over to yank at the buckles keeping her leg armor in place, cursing them quietly as they stick thanks to any of copious amounts of blood, mud, or sweat.

"I'm not certain," she grunts, letting out a relieved sigh when it finally gives. "If you know what ingratiate means but basically it's when someone is grateful-"

"I know what it means," Piper snaps, scowling at her like a petulant child.

"Sure, sweetheart," she drawls back, lazy grin tugging at her scarred mouth. She rubs a hand through her sweaty hair, pushing it out of her eyes, thinking about visiting Horatio to trim it up in the morning. She snags a towel from one of the lockers, throwing it over her shoulder and making for the door. "I'll believe that when I see it."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What did i say about hits, huh? I didn't want ANY. Get out just get the FUGGOUT.
> 
> Also, named my Deathclaw Gauntlet " YAS QUEEN SLAY" so every time I use it i crack up. Pls feel free to do the same. Kisses, get out, love you, but never come back.


	4. Mistakes were made

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which mistakes are made and acknowledged.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love kids very very much. No matter how old i get I'll always melt for a sweet lil baby. There were kids i used to let climb all over me and. Well i spread the love to those in need.

She doesn't like wearing the Vault suits. Not any of them. It doesn't matter what number is emblazoned across the breast, they all bring to mind her first moment in this life. And so she needs something a little cleaner to wear until she can scrub the blood and God only knew what else was saturated into her clothing, but the suits just aren't an option. She must be lucky then, that she'd visited Vault 114 and picked up a clean three-piece suit from one of the laundry rooms scattered throughout

Though it's tighter than she'd like, it doesn't get any second glances from Edwards as she strolls out of the shower room. That means it's already way better than the harness she'd had to don last time.

"Don't you ever sleep, Scotty?" She's not close to him. Despite everything he trusts her little and eyes her like she's a mutant hound with teeth bared, ready to leap for his throat.

"Don't you?" She laughs too loudly and he starts but she doesn't waste more words on him, slipping by and continuing on to her room. The one where she hopes to find her unfortunately-talkative companion sleeping soundly. Really Dogmeat had been so perfect, why had she entrusted him to guard Sanctuary? How stupid could she be!?

As it turns out, very stupid.

Piper was stretched out on the bed, hat missing, coat hung up in the only locker left wide open, boots on the floor by the foot of the bed. She sees this and all the tension in her body melts. The steel abandons her spine and she sags for that loss, dropping down heavily into her chair to brace her elbows against the desk and hold her face in her hands for a moment.

"You ok?" If asked later, she would deny every part of this conversation happening, but mostly she'd deny that she flinched and yelped and nearly fell from her chair. If asked later, Piper would call her a damn liar.

"What," she can't help laying a hand over her poor abused heart, throwing a glare that pulls at every scar on her face towards the girl eyeing her from the bed, back no longer turned. "The  _fuck_  is your problem?!"

"I'm stuck with a kidnapping, homicidal synth that can teleport at will, barks at me like a dog and grunts at me like a caveman." One of her brows cocks, a challenge if she's ever seen one.  _Prove me wrong_ , it said. She can feel her lips curling back in what's either a snarl or a sneer.

"I'm fine," she grits out instead of throwing her own issues back at Piper. "Go to sleep."

"Kinda hard to with that whole murdering, kidnapping-" a part of her understands that, at this point, it's really closer to teasing than an actual attempt to piss her off. That doesn't stop what she can only label a very loud, very animal growl from shredding her vocal chords as she jerks up out of her seat. The metal chair slams against the floor, also metal, and the sound startles Piper into a sitting position.

Her pistol is in her hand - she'd stashed it under the pillow - and although it isn't pointed at her, it's that wary look she wears so identical to Edwards' that calms her. Deflates and sags her once again. She runs a hand down her face, sighs, and grabs the arm-full of armor and reeking road leathers. She doesn't say anything as she leaves. But she will stay away until morning.

* * *

When Piper comes to, it's a sudden affair. She lurches awake, heart pounding a heavy tattoo against her breast. The room is empty, but. A carton of cigarettes sits on the edge of the nightstand nearest to her. And so she hadn't said anything to be cruel about it but the peace offering manages to make her feel an awful lot like an unbearable twat. She moves to sit on the edge of the bed, sighing and scrubbing the sleep from her eyes.

Blue is gone and they don't know each other but she'd be willing to bet she hasn't been abandoned here - something about the armor piled on the rest of the desk... Which means it's probably about time to apologize. So she dresses and arms herself, walking out of the modest room with purpose and-

She's halted by the sight of Blue down on the first floor with a child perched on her shoulders, striding around with ease despite the second child latched to her leg. They're delighted, roaring with joyous laughter and Blue. Blue's smiling like Piper never knew she could. She's smiling like it's the only expression her face was meant to wear. She's. She's.

_Totally fucking harmless. And I'm an ass hole._

Her dad had once tried to tell her, when she was very young and Nat wasn't even toddling around, that it was respectable to accept one's own faults and mistakes with grace. And, well, she wouldn't say she was graceless, exactly, but...

Blue must have some crazy sort of sixth sense for her. She's hardly taken a step before electric blue eyes find her and jump between about a thousand emotions in the span of a blink and sheepish, guilty wave. The smile drops but she doesn't start glaring and sneering like usual. She nods, turns and starts bow-legged walking back towards the eating area underneath Piper's feet.

"Grognak!" The child, a young boy dappled with freckles, dangling from Blue's neck crows as Piper hits the bottom of the stairs, eyeing her with an interest too bright. "Grognak is that your wife?" She almost can't comprehend the enormous soft spot Blue has for children. Because that question draws the eyes of the girl latched to Blue's leg and, upon sighting her, the little girl gasps and lets go of Blue, which allows the walking jungle gym the chance to sit on the edge of a bench.

"She's pretty," the little girl leans over to 'whisper'.

"She is," Blue agrees, reaching up to gently untangle tiny hands from around her neck, watching Piper the whole time even as she addresses the boy, "And no, Austin. She's not my wife."

"Have you asked?" The little girl pipes up, smiling hugely and waving at Piper. She'd frozen at the bottom of the stairs, watching the events unfold. The wave prompts a wave in return and she takes the slowest steps she possibly can to lead her to their comfy gaggle.

"Hmmmm." Blue purses her lips and screws her face up in an extremely exaggerated expression of concentration. "Ya know, I haven't."

"HEY LADY!" Blue bursts into laughter, lightly cuffing the back of Austin's head, warning him about his volume and using his inside voice in what's got to be the softest tone she's ever heard Blue affect. She reaches them in time to catch the tail end of Blue telling them both,

"-and it's Piper!"

"We know already, Grognak!" Austin rolled his eyes. "You've only told us a thousand times-"

"Nuh-uh, it was only like a trillion!" Austin and his friend only giggle under Blue's disapproving look, giggling that very quickly brings back a sunny smile-

"Am I dreaming?" Blue, showing that uncanny sense for her, seems the only one to hear her numb, confused murmur.

Going all soft again, she encourages the children to hurry on to class before they're late. They whine, complain she won't be there when they get back and she agrees but promises gifts next time she visits. This prompts cheers and the children throwing themselves at her simultaneously. She chuckles and squeezes them both, then releasing them and shooing them away.

And once they're out of sight the little smile making the scars decorating her features seem like soft lines disappears and an absolutely neutral expression takes over. She invites Piper to sit with her with a jerk of her chin, swinging her legs over the bench to spin and brace her elbows against the table. From the perch Piper takes beside her, she studies the scars on this side of Blue's face.

There's an old one, faded and silvery, that cuts through her brow. Then one that barely missed gouging out an eye and huge long one starting from the crown of her head that just brushed by her nose. Like something huge and clawed took a swipe a her face. Or maybe she got them all at different times but...

The one crossing her brow is the only faded one.

And she's curious (nosy) by nature, so she wants to ask about it but there are more pressing matters...

"Grognak?" Such as discovering how such a ridiculous name came to be one she'd answer to.

_Smooth, Pipes. Way to be adult. Great apology._

"I'm his hero," she shrugs, watching Piper from the corner of this scarred eye. "And he's tiny which makes it easy to throw him around like a sack of Tatos."

"But you won't tell him your real name," Piper provides. Blue nods, tiny smile quirking up the visible side of her mouth, though it's nothing like what she'd bestowed upon the children. Which reminds her... "I, uh. There's something I wanted to say." Blue shifts, turning to face Piper and propping her chin on one fist.

"Go for your life," Blue offers graciously, stifling a yawn. "But make it quick, we've got to hit the road soon."

"Right! Ok, so," Uhh. Fuck. "I wanted to. Apologize." Blue's brows raise until they disappear into the messy bangs that nearly fall into her eyes. So maybe they don't raise all that far, but her eyes are growing big. " I owe you about twelve apologies, really. But uh-"

"If this is about last night..." Her brows drop and her eyes are a little closer to their regular roundness, mouth tugging down in a tiny frown. "I overreacted anyway. Don't worry 'bout it."

"But this isn't," Blue stares at the hand Piper dares to lay upon her arm. "You've made it abundantly clear how capable you are of ending my life. Even when Danny had a gun on you, you could have killed us both before we could blink. But you haven't. And you won't. Because you're a good person and. I'm really fucking sorry for accusing you of being a synth. And a murderer. And a kidnapper."

Blue sits back, turning away from Piper. Expression unreadable. Eventually her eyes close and something that's not quite a smile curls at her mouth; she snorts,

"If I'd only known that taking you to Vault 81 would solve these issues you've had with my existence..." She sighs, wistful. Plopping her chin in one hand, she grins at Piper, "Well I'm glad we've at least got an understanding now. It'll make the rest of the journey much more pleasant."

"You, uh, still taking me to Sanctuary?" It. It really wasn't necessary at this point...

"You blackmailed me into this. And while I appreciate your willingness to accept that was kinda fucked in the first place, I made a promise. I don't make those lightly. You're going to Sanctuary and I'll be taking you there. Now," she stands, offering a smirk to Piper's less-than-enthusiastic expression. "If you're quite done, I've got to see Horatio before we head on."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why is this so short? Ask Blue. She came and kicked me in my no-no place and told me her perfection couldn't be improved. See what you people do when you read this garbage? SEE WHAT YOU DID!?
> 
>  
> 
> hope you're all proud to have earned my love. You can keep it but feel free to put it back in the dumpster at any time, as suits your needs.


	5. That's one way to end a conversation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Blue's kindness is relative to her proximity to Sanctuary.
> 
> i.e. she takes pity on poor Piper and talks to her like a real boy! Err. Girl!... Human?
> 
>  
> 
> But, oh yeah, she's still a bit of a cactus.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Got an interview in a few hours for a new job. My last day for this one is tomorrow and I'm feeling nostalgic. Day drinking will be happening. But then I'm going to a Pride Parade with my wife on Friday!!!!
> 
>  
> 
> Making a pretty girl laugh always makes my spirit light ~w~

She's in a rare mood. The rarest, considering the life she lives now. Goodness, she's in such a state of sunny brightness she can't help smiling, humming, whistling such that the world might know her joy! Why she feels marvelous, stupendous, positively-

"Are you, uhh, feeling ok?" And she laughs, she can't hardly help it. Which probably isn't helping Piper decide if she was too quick apologizing about accusing her of any synth-ness.

"I'm amazing," she tells her, grinning. And coming upon a gaggle of Gunners just shortly after leaving 81 that morning, she'd traded her gas mask for a sturdy metal helmet. Piper can see every unnerving - from the way Piper's been watching, despite that she's happy the expressions are unnerving her - look that pulls at her scars. "We'll be at Sanctuary by the end of the day and then... Well gosh I don't even know what I'll do then!"

"Thought it took a day and a half?"

"Mmm, I may have exaggerated. All towards the greater purpose of trying to put you off, convince you to not come, leave me the fuck alone an' all that," she spares a withering glare that can't really be a glare with the way her lips tug up into an impish grin, continuing, "We see how well  _that_  worked."

Piper could puff up like an angry kitten all she wanted, it wouldn't change what she'd said, wouldn't make it any less true. So in the face of the dirty look she receives, she just shrugs.

"But hey," Piper had been about to speak and she is in such a fine mood, why not fuck with the girl while she still could? Interrupting her made the prettiest little slip of a snarl appear on her lovely mouth and it was just too cute to miss. "At least you figured out I'm not a synth, and before we got there! Aren't you proud of yourself?"

She'd always been partial to red and Piper looked rather fetching sporting the healthiest shade of it upon her cheekbones. She looked mad enough to bite her. Precious, precious little baby. Was... Was that... Did she feel half-hesitant to end their journey?

Oh...

Wow...

No. Not at all. The thought of leaving Piper at Sanctuary still made her giddy, ridiculously so.

"Who knows," she tilts her head back to allow sunlight to wash over her face. Damn it felt good to lose the gas mask. "Maybe you'll like it. Decide to get out of that shit hole town you leave your sister in." And now she's just being rude. But hey, fuck being nice. Piper might be cute as a button but that hardly meant she'd go easy on the girl.

In these last precious hours she had left before they'd reach Sanctuary, it was imperative to burrow so deep under Piper's skin every time the little lady even saw the color blue she'd be overcome by a sense of nostalgic displeasure. This was her goal, and she would accomplish it no matter what.

"Watch your-"

"Hey!" she throws up her hands in the most placating way she can. "No judge, hon! We're all running from something, I'm sure you've got a  _real good reason_  for leaving her. Do it often, do ya?

Ahh, well. Perhaps she  _should_  dial it back a bit... Although

"Are you hoping she'll leave you or...?" Yes. This was good and she felt good about this. But just in case she should probably actually stop.

"You're determined," she jolts very slightly. Had she been perfectly still Piper might have noticed. She obligingly turns to side-eye Piper and- shit, oh yeah she's not anywhere close to happy. Clenched jaw and hard eyes that look of a want to tear. "To take me to Sanctuary. Proving a point, I get it. I expect you could toss me over your shoulders like a sack of tatos with ease in the case that I protest..."

And here she pauses and a muscle in her jaw jumps, those eyes shine and in the light there's green in her eyes. Green and a coppery sort of brown. Right now they're so dark they look black. When she speaks again it's the lowest grumble she's heard from the girl and it does tickle at a respect she would never admit to having for the nosy loudmouth,

"But I apologized. And I've backed off. You owe me the same."

And she does ponder responding with a nice, friendly,  _I don't owe you shit little girl_ , but smiles instead. Tells her,

"My, how you've grown," and sighs wistfully. Sniffles and wipes at tears that aren't there to begin with, "They grow up so fast!"

* * *

She understands that the last comment isn't meant to be cruel like the previous ones. Blue won't apologize and she knows that; she hadn't really been asking for one and besides that she knew better than to expect one from the woman. She wouldn't apologize but she'd acknowledged that Piper wouldn't be putting up with anymore digs at her family life. She  _was_  backing off.  _Is_  backing off but.

But that last comment... It hits her in a quiet broken shard of her heart that hurts forever for her father and frets endlessly over Nat.

It takes a lot of quiet, painful effort to swallow the massive lump in her throat that's throttling the air from her lungs. Her eyes sting and she's not about to get upset about this. She's just not. Now, more than ever, does she need a cigarette. And, lucky lucky, her prickly partner had gifted a fine bounty of preserved ones unto her just that morning.

She waits until after the first few drags on it before she speaks.

"I never did thank you for these," and she's not going to, thank you very much. Blue chuckles, that real smoky one so sweet on the ears. Harmless. Painless.

"You never asked for them." Blue shrugs. She hums and they go quiet. Only long enough for more guilt-ridden thoughts of Nat to crowd in.

"Thanks," It's not really an apology if she's using it as a ploy to block out the storm in her mind. So she's not really apologizing. So. There. Blue must sense this because that same chuckle leaves her lips and she even flashes Piper a smile but she doesn't say anything. She drops back, slowing her steps to walk beside Piper.

"So," she tucks her hands behind the combat armor chest piece she'd pilfered from one of the gunners that'd been stupid enough to step up to her.

"So," she breathes back, smoke curling about her face and stinging into her eyes.  _God it's wonderful._

"Gonna share any of that?" She considers flipping Blue the bird. Takes a long drag off the thing in question. Another. And another. And then Blue shrugs and plucks it from her lips anyway, chirping, "Thanks!" It's not like she could have stopped her - she's forming new suspicions that Blue may or may not be related to super mutants, or at the very least literally made of Psycho - but she could have waited for Piper to finish.

She watches Blue, as she's wont to do. She's thinking of Nat. That home Blue calls a shit hole. That home that  _is_  a shit hole, to be perfectly frank. But the home that's hers nonetheless and-

"You don't have any family," Blue doesn't jerk and snap to attention like she thinks she might. She'd spoken without thinking(again) and she's not quite sure how the thought had come bull rushing into her brain and out of her mouth in the first place. Her storm had quieted and it was just. There. "To leave behind anywhere."

She's slow to speak. In fact, she's slowing. Piper takes this opportunity to pull out her pack and light up another cigarette. Blue can keep it if it'll make her this calm.

"No," she admits at last, pulling the cigarette from her lips to nod in Piper's direction. "No I don't." And it's not as though she's crying. Or angry or. She fits the cigarette back to her mouth and starts up their trek again. Faster but not running away from her or this conversation. And there's nothing in her posture, nothing in her stride no hitches in her breath or twitching of microexpressions across her face. She still seems somber somehow.

And so Piper considers her companion anew. Runs through vitriolic comments in her mind, those Blue had used against her.

**_Who died in front of you, sweetheart?_ **

"I'm sorry," That does manage to startle Blue. Not terribly but her shoulders jump and she turns slightly wider eyes her way. And then her face goes all soft. Eyes sad but mouth smiling. She just drops her cigarette, the wasteful trollop. Crushes it out with the toe of one boot.

"No worries. Happened a long time ago."

"Do you, uhh," she clears her throat, looks off. Ducks her head and fiddles with her hat. "Do you ever see his face when you kill someone?" It comes out a lot steadier than she thinks it should. Sure her voice had cracked on  _his_  but she hadn't squeaked or anything awful. Usually thinking of Mayburn causes her throat to close up with that ache she hates so very much.

"I used to," it takes her an incredible length of time to admit this. So much so, Piper had finished her cigarette and begun to suspect Blue had slipped into ignoring her again. "I used a tire iron at that time and when every face was his... Let's just say there are certain areas of the Commonwealth raiders refuse to step foot in."

She laughs. It rumbles and it's smoky but it's not that velvety one so smooth on the ears. Familiar territory - angry noise. And this isn't exactly where she'd wanted to take the conversation. She'd just wanted to  _have_  one. A real genuine conversation.

"Ah, uhh, so speaking of killing raiders," Wherever Blue's mind had slipped off to, she shakes herself and quirks a brow, smirking at Piper. Like this wasn't serious business. Like they weren't discussing the deliberate taking of lives. "Think you could teach me that Blitz thing? Seems a bit an unfair advantage, don't ya think?"

She can say that Blue surprised is a wonderful thing. She can say that it brings out that little drop of sun she'd shone upon those Vault kids. She can say that watching delight play upon those striking features makes her insides squirm and writhe. She can say these things, but she won't.

"If only I knew how," she lets out a dramatic, wistful sigh, gazing off into the distance. If Piper hadn't been looking, really staring Blue down, she might have missed the way Blue's expression warped in the span of two blinks. Lips parting, eyes going wide. And her namesake finds Piper's gaze in that flash.

Realization.

Guard up.

She's cooler than the ice of her eyes, "But I don't." Shrugging and executing a neat, near flawless mimicry of regret. "Sorry." Piper's going to ruin this easygoing atmosphere they've enjoyed since morning, she just knows she is. But it's worth it. Right?

"You're not too good at lying, ya know?" Blue stops dead. Her glaring and growling doesn't start up, not yet. But her teeth flash, brow twitches, eyes sharpen as she turns to consider Piper.

"I'm not-"

"You are," Piper insists, can't even finish speaking before Blue is sighing. Shoulders slumping. "Why won't you teach me?"

"I don't-"

"You know how! What could it hurt?"

"You can't just-"

"It's not like I'll use it against you! I-"

"God DAMNIT Piper! Will you just let me speak!?" It's hard to tell her no when she uses that power in question to reach her instantly, shake her by a firm grip on the shoulders. And Blue doesn't yell, not really. It still nearly startles her into an early grave. Blue realizes and, as if burned, finches away. Tucking her hands in those secret pockets on the inside of her chest piece.

"I can't teach you," she starts after a deep breath. Barreling forward when Piper goes to speak, "Not because I'm incapable or don't know how! It's not anything to do with me. It's... It's you, actually. You don't have the same parts I do." She can't help the way her eyes drift down towards Blue's, err, genitals, brow twitching up.

And Blue. Blue blushes a pretty, bright red. Through gritted teeth,

"Not. Like.  _That._ " Piper crosses her arms, cocks her hip. Her other brow jumps up to join its twin. "You wouldn't understand."

"Try me." This time when Blue's lips pull back, it's not an awful, angry snarl. Well. So it definitely  _is_  that exactly, but it's not particularly aimed at Piper. Just a generally frustrated beyond words expression. Teeth grinding and all that.

"I worked for a company. They gave me a... A  _gift_ , I should have questioned more."

"Oh yeah? What kind of gift?"

"The kind that's none of your damn business." Ah. Welp. That was good while it lasted.

"I-"

"Oberland Station is up ahead. We can stop there for lunch."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Blue and Piper are pushy people, eh? Sanctuary is soon but, worry not dear lil Starr babies, I couldn't possibly leave it there!
> 
> Also Curie, Cait, Garvey, MacCready and more are on the way to entertain you. Or piss you off. Cuz this is a hot sack of garbage that nobody should be reading who are you people why are you in my garage?
> 
> (I love you stay sweet never leave I'll feed you I swear)


	6. Because even brutes can bleed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blue is bleeding and no-one cares. 
> 
> Well. Piper cares.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote so fucking much of this a month or so ago and then kinda forgot about it. So. Here it is.

She thinks that maybe she shouldn't be checking Blue out but it's not like there's very much else to do. She won't talk to Piper and it's not as though there's anything more interesting than watching her mysterious companion prowl through the Commonwealth, face like thunder and holding herself bigger than a Brute of the Super Mutant variety. It was...

Well a lot of words came to mind and she found herself ashamed that wolf whistling just about summed it up quite nicely. Truly she was a disappointment to her profession.

But she's started to put more stock into the Psycho theory. Blue is awful twitchy. Sometimes she'll just stop moving for no apparent reason, kinda sway in place, then jerk in a direction just slightly different than the one they'd been heading in. She'll always throw a quick glance over her shoulder in these instances, as if to make certain that Piper still follows, and then Piper can observe that her face is always a touch too-grim for their rather plain uneventful journey.

She stays away from Psycho herself, nasty stuff can really screw with your head. Never mind what it does to your body. (Although Blue's body still seems in fighting fit condition, even if that description feels terribly lacking, 'cause damn she's...) And watching Twitchy McTrembles jerk along in front of her does make her wonder...

"Is it worth it?" It's like Blue can sense when she's going to speak. She never jerks or jumps or goes all strained muscle anymore. Maybe she's  _always_  expecting Piper to say something. Not necessarily a bad idea...

"Hmm?"

"You're addicted to Psycho, right?" And Blue grinds to a complete halt. She turns to Piper and her scarred brows are heavy, furrowing things casting deep shadows across her face. She's like a mountain, a really pissed off mountain, Piper decides. Especially when she rumbles out a low,

"Excuse me?" in a tone not unlike a rock slide.

"You," she gestures helplessly to Blue's body, spluttering beneath pale cutting blue. "You're all.  _Twitchy_. And you get angry all the time! Never mind the mood swings..." While she struggles through what is sounding more and more like pure conjecture, Blue's crossing her arms over her chest, glaring away. When she finishes, Blue goes to speak.

And stops.

Her jaw works and she keeps inhaling to start but stops herself and the glare settles deeper and deeper into the bone structure of her face.

"I don't have a problem it's. It's something else!" And then a violent tremor wreaks havoc on her body and she's doing that Totally-Not-A-Synth thing she does and teleports to Piper, shoving her down just in time for a missile to fly overhead. Her mouth is a fierce angry twist and her eyes burn and as Piper's ears try to recover from the blast, Blue disappears.

Fifteen seconds can be an eternity when traveling with someone like Blue, teleporter extraordinaire. Fifteen seconds of ringing ears and muffled noise and then she becomes aware of gunshots and screaming. And the thing that makes her skin prick, the hairs stand up on the back of her neck, sweat trickle down her spine - Blue is part of that screaming.

* * *

She has these episodes. She likes to think of them as 'mini deaths'. They're like waking dreams in which she dies. At first she'd thought maybe the radiation had rotted her brain. Eventually she came to understand it was just another thing that Vault Tec had seen fit to gift her. If they were still around now they would have been rocketed to even greater heights of Multibillion-Dollar-Evil-Empire-itude with this wonderful fucking joy box.

She couldn't die.

And not to make it sound any certain way but she  _had_  tried, thank you. She really couldn't die. Or, well she could but. But not  _really_  really. She'd feel it, experience the pain, the sensation of cold creeping over her as her soul escaped her body. And then she'd experience that deep ripping sensation, that forceful  _something_  that sucked her back through hours or minutes or seconds and thrust her into her body.

She'd died three times now to a grunt with a missile launcher and she was sick and tired of the full five seconds she'd lived through screaming and bleeding out through the meaty stumps that'd once been her legs. The second she's back in her body and seen Piper safe, she starts to Blitz around. How and even why the fuck a contingent of raiders is this far north is beyond her but they will not live to regret crossing into  _her_  territory.

"Don't. Come into. CONCORD!" She likes to think she'd never had a temper before The Bombs. She likes to pretend it'd never been a problem she'd shared with her worthless fuck of a father. She likes, in fact most of all, she really and truly likes cutting people down. The resistance of bone and muscle, fighting to stay whole and together against the force she exerts behind her blade. She likes how hard she has to work and how she never leaves a battlefield nearly as angry as she'd entered.

She likes not feeling angry.

And she likes the feeling of wiping these sons of-

"FFUUU _UUUU **UUCK** **!**_ " She whips around and slams her sword through a chest that would've been much better off with a piece of armor protecting it. She screams and shrieks and shoves against the glorified corpse until the tangle they've become crashes into a wall and in that second before she rips her sword down as hard as she can to split this fuck as open as humanly possible, he fumbles, grabs, twists and snaps the sharpest part of his switchblade off into that space between two of her ribs.

He dies and she growls and spits on his cooling, blood weeping corpse. Over the rush of her blood roaring in her ears she hears Piper calling and sucks in a breath to shout back. Maybe tell her to keep her fucking hat on. She sucks in a breath and pain that blinds like the drop of a nuclear bomb, like hot lead in the veins, like-

"F-fuhuk," she shakes and leans against the wall she'd just eviscerated that body against, wanting to press a trembling palm to the wound. Wanting to shove a Stimpak into her thigh so hard it hurts more than helps. Kind of wanting a mini-death to try that again, but killing the switchblade guy second instead of last.

"Blue!  _Blue!_ " Piper is getting closer to hysterical and she's struggling just to breath with one lung not actively filling with blood.

"Calm," she wheezes and Piper shouts again, feet pounding against half-rotten floorboards as she sprints into the dilapidated ruin full of bodies. "Calm down!"

"Blue," Piper should not be this happy to see her hobbling down the stairs. Good news - she isn't happy for long. "Jesus Blue, what happened?"

"Think you can help me out?" And yes, it  _had_  literally hurt her to ask that. But she figured a sting wasn't so bad as bleeding out or drowning slowly. Hadn't tasted very nice, but. "Some fucking  _bug_  stung me."

"Yeah, Blue, anything," And the weird part is that Piper is being completely honest right now. Open and sincere and. And Piper isn't the naïve young girl Blue tauntingly calls her - she should  _know_  better than to offer "anything" to just anyone. Regardless of their day spent in each other's presence, neither of them had done terribly much to prove trustworthy and-

She honestly did not have time to consider how stupid of an offer that is, she can barely breathe and she's running out of time before this'll end and she'll have to do it all over again.

"Wu-would ya be able. To pull this ou-out?" She turns and offers her side, already slick from her sluggishly weeping wound, and eyes Piper warily as she takes in the damage. And she thinks, again, that Piper shouldn't offer just  _anything_  without first knowing what is actually required of her.

"Blue that's a little... That's out of my area of expertise. Need proofreading? I'm your girl. This is..."

"Yeah," she grits out, teeth grinding to keep the awful screaming or heavy weeping at bay. Punctured lungs _fucking hurt_. And she'd given birth, she knows a little something about pain. "Figured as. As much. Listen. We, we're real close to San-anctuary. Less than. Twenty minutes."

"We've gotta hurry then-"

"No. No. Hurrying is. For people with t-two functioning lungs. One of mine is. Filling with blood," she isn't cupping the wound so much as cradling the area just beneath. Something about it is supremely comforting and if she has to die four times in less than ten minutes she'd rather go out feeling some modicum of comfort. She doesn't shove past Piper like she might have in any other instance, either. Maybe she's going soft.

Or maybe jostling herself and the young woman would have made her bump that bloody metal jutting out of her side and, more than likely, would have dropped her to her knees. She was getting a feeling like hitting the ground would be the end.

"Come on. Just. Just past the. Truck stop."

* * *

Hancock laughs. He sees her sweating and pale faced and bleeding out and he fucking laughs.

"Asshole," she wheezes and he laughs  _harder_. "I'm gonna. Kick your ass!"

"Suuure ya are, Shroud," he grins and nods to a startled Piper. "You run into a Primus or somethin'?"

"Get Curie you. Useless chem peddler!"

"Ouch. You wound me!" she's  _literally_  bleeding out. And he's making jokes.

"We're not. Friends."

"Mon Dieu!" There is a God and he favors her rarely. Curie liked to make rounds in Sanctuary, always walking around the remains of suburbia and hardly ever stepping into the houses there except for sleep or alone time with Cait. She thinks it's because the woman cannot stand being surrounded by walls, having spent so much of her existence trapped alone in a laboratory.

She's only so thankful for that unfortunate time in Curie's life, otherwise Hancock might have just let her die on the dilapidated bridge. She spares him a glare with what energy she can muster. He grins back, finger waving as Curie escorts her to the nearest house and Piper just kinda trails after, head on a swivel taking in the splendor of all her hard work. When she's got her breath, she needs to remember to ask what the girl thinks.

It's not like it matters and she doesn't really care but she's just curious enough to want to know.

"Ya look like shite," Curie very quietly admonishes a smirking Cait as she settles down onto a couch and she reconsiders allowing such rude, ungrateful heathens to live in  _her_  Sanctuary.

Cait smiles easy and pretends to demure and apologize for Curie's sake. She still smirks when Curie's back turns though, and it's infuriating. She steps around the lovely woman pulling off the heavy chest piece to get at her injury, offering no help and a short greeting to Piper who stalls in the doorway.

"Nasty, that. How'd ya manage it?" Cait whistles low, eyeing the wound and she's just sitting there reeling, wheezing and fighting not to scream and cry and waste more breath. If she hadn't been so pumped full of rage at the time, she might have marveled that the corpse had even had the strength to shove a switchblade through the side. Must've been a veteran.

"I-" there is no warning. Her head ticks back and a scream leaves her lips, so loud she can't even perceive of it beyond the ringing in her ears. "What the FUCK, Curie!?" Well used to her outbursts by now, Curie only smiles and holds up the twisted metal she'd plucked from between two ribs.

Cait strolls over to smile and laugh and clap her shoulder and-

"Don't you  _dare_." She catches Cait's wrist easy. She and Curie are joined at the hip on their worst, as a medical duo they're a terror. Curie lacks delicacy and Cait doesn't care for it. She carefully takes the Stimpak Cait had been ready to slam into her shoulder, letting Cait go but only after squeezing hard enough to bruise.

Cait doesn't flinch, never stops grinning the whole time.

"Baby," she flips Cait the bird. Shoves at her as she stands up, not that it does much in moving her. She might have height and weight on the Irishwoman but Cait is hardly a toothpick. They square off, glaring. Then-

"FUCK!" Cait crows with laughter, shaking and almost wheezing before she starts coughing and hacking.

"Je suis vraiment désolé," she doesn't lessen the intensity of her glare, even in the face of Curie's genuine contrition. "You were still bleeding..." She gestures helplessly to the wound slowly knitting itself back together, the trickle of blood slowing slowing. It stings something awful, like the throb in her shoulder thanks to that Stimpak Curie had introduced to it with all the tenderness of a Rabid Radstag.

"It would've been fine," she's grinding this out and shoves past the women. Well, she shoves past Cait. Curie's quite a bit slighter than they ever will be and Cait wouldn't hesitate to knock a tooth out if she shoved past the petite woman. And that was decidedly something she did not need right now.

"You're forgettin' something," Cait calls and she knows it's her armor. But she's halfway to where Piper hovers in the door - she knew she was allowed to explore right? - and turning back might as well be admitting defeat. So she snorts and jerks her head down so her chin is nearly touching her chest and keeps strutting away, ignoring the laughter that chases after her.

"Come on," she grinds out and. Piper that. That fucking traitor is  _grinning_  at her. "Come  _on!_ "

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I keep changing capitalizations, What wrong with me? Ummm, I'm not supposed to be awake, but I had a dentist appointment yay kill me I'm going back to bed.
> 
>  
> 
> Uh, more game mechanics acknowledged, because "My God made me do it" isn't good enough excuse. Imagine a character in the higher half of the one hundreds going towards levels two hundred and above, but still in Survival mode... That shit will kill you with the easiest enemies, despite HP up to nearly two thousand. Ok i love you good morning and night.


End file.
